Artist Decoded: Peter Doig

Doig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1959. Relocating to Trinidad as a young boy with his Family, travel and new destinations have been a constant in his life. In 2021, he returned to London, where he now lives and works.

Reviewing Doig's catalogue of works, there tends to be a void, a longing or a singular figure that permeates the scene - Could this be life imitating art?

Peter Doig's auction results are a testament to his concrete following and place in contemporary art. Christie's New York 21st Century Evening Sale on 9 Nov 2021, Swamped (1990) sold for just under $40,000,000.

More recently, at Christie's London 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on 15 Oct 2025, Ski Jacket (1994) sold for £14,270,000, smashing its estimate of £6,000,000 - £8,000,000.

The Serpentine, London, is currently showing the 5-star rated exhibition.

Doig’s atmospheric works are paired with a soundtrack curated from his own vinyl collection, played through towering vintage cinema speakers.

10 Oct 2025 - 8 Feb 2026

Doig openly acknowledges his influences from Canadian landscape painting (especially the Group of Seven), German Expressionism, and art-history figures like Edvard Munch.

Echo Lake (1998)

In a fitting conclusion to one of the art world’s more unusual courtroom dramas, Peter Doig has been awarded $2.5 million in sanctions by a US federal court after being sued for denying authorship of a painting.

Following a 2016 trial where Doig took the stand to assert the work wasn’t his. The court has now ordered the painting’s owner, Robert Fletcher, along with Chicago’s Bartlow Gallery Ltd. and their attorney, William Zieske, to pay the $2.5 million in sanctions.